Year: 2021

Mapperley Stud stallion Contributer is starting to make his mark in Hong Kong. Earlier this month he sired his first Hong Kong winner when Snowalot won the HKJC Canmake Tokyo Handicap (1200m). Snowalot was having his first raceday start for expat Kiwi trainer Paul O’Sullivan after being sold to Hong Kong interests after a trio of impressive trial performances in New Zealand.  Snowalot was a $40,000 purchase by Wexford Stables out of the Jamieson Park draft at the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale. Contributer didn’t have to…

In-form jockey Dylan Turner is not one for sitting around. The Palmerston North rider has made a good start to the 2020-21 season, riding home six winners from 41 starts – the latest being the impressive Vigor Winner in an open 1400m handicap at Awapuni. But the 27-year-old has plenty on his plate away from racing, juggling race riding on the weekends with a building apprenticeship Monday to Friday, in addition to milking cows on a daily basis. “I’m sort of flat out. I’m up at 3.30 every morning to…

Queensland’s winter carnival will now boast seven million-dollar feature races after significant prizemoney boosts were signed off on by Racing Queensland officials during the week. Two of the big winners are the Gr.1 Doomben Cup (2000m) and Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m), with their respective prizemoney being enhanced from A$700,000 and A$600,000 to A$1 million. A further drawcard for three-year-old’s is the A$1.2 million Q22 (2218m), with Racing Queensland offering A$100,000 in cash or A$250,000 QTISx vouchers to any horse that runs first or second in the Queensland Derby or Gr.1…

With Auckland border restrictions set to continue until December 15, racing in the region has responded accordingly. The meeting set to take place at Ellerslie on December 4 has been transferred to Matamata, while the twilight meeting on December 9 has been cancelled. As a result, the Tauranga meeting on December 10 will now be run for feature stake money.

Dual Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) placegetter Sound will be looking for back-to-back wins in the Gr.2 Zipping Classic when he contests the 2400m Caulfield feature on Saturday. The Michael Moroney-trained entire heads into the weekend in good form, having placed in the Gr.2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) last month before finishing runner-up in the Gr.3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2600m) at Flemington. “He’s going well, I can’t fault his runs this campaign, he’s probably going better than last year,” Moroney told Racing.com. “He was a pretty hard-going horse when we…